Jockey Victor Espinoza tests positive for coronavirus

DEL MAR, Calif. – Jockey Victor Espinoza has tested positive for coronavirus and will be “out for a while,” his agent, Brian Beach, said Friday.

Espinoza had a test taken in San Diego County on Friday afternoon after a test he had taken on Thursday in Orange County failed to be processed in the quick time he had been promised; as of Friday night he had not received those results. Since that Orange County test had yet to come back by the start of racing Friday, Espinoza was taken off his mounts on the opening-day card at Del Mar.

According to Beach, Espinoza – who rehabbed at Scripps hospital locally after being seriously injured at Del Mar in a training accident two years ago – was able to reach out to contacts at Scripps to get a test Friday. It was quickly processed and revealed Espinoza was positive for coronavirus, Beach said.

Espinoza is the third rider who was at Los Alamitos last Saturday who has subsequently tested positive. Martin Garcia was announced as having tested positive on Wednesday, prior to riding at Indiana Grand, and Luis Saez was announced as having tested positive on Friday at Keeneland. Both Garcia and Saez have ridden at multiple tracks in the past week-plus. Espinoza has not traveled anywhere via airplane. Los Alamitos's final day of its brief summer meeting was last Sunday.

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Beach said that Espinoza learned Wednesday night of Garcia’s test and decided it would be prudent to be proactive and get himself tested. Owing to general reports about a backlog of processing tests in San Diego County, Espinoza went to the facility in Orange County that promised the quick turnaround, Beach said. Espinoza expected to get those results early Friday. But because he did not have them by the time racing started at 2 p.m. Pacific on Friday, and because he had informed Del Mar officials as to his status, he was removed from his mounts.

As with all employees and essential staff here, Del Mar is requiring temperature checks of jockeys when they arrive each day. All are asked if they have been feeling ill, been around anyone feeling ill, or been out of the country in the previous 14 days. If the temperature check is passed and all three questions are answered as no, admission is granted. Del Mar is racing Friday through Sunday for the bulk of its meet.

By contrast, at Santa Anita, where racing ended late last month, jockeys were tested every Wednesday in advance of racing on a similar Friday-through-Sunday schedule, and upon arrival on Friday morning they were quarantined on-site in individual trailers.